Gingerbread makeover: Families get to see their homes become edible

Tuesday

Dec 23, 2008 at 12:01 AMDec 23, 2008 at 10:18 PM

As it turns out, maybe you can live happily ever after in a house made out of gingerbread. Or at least, so it seemed last week for a group of families brought together by a local architect for an unusual and festive holiday homecoming celebration.

Julie Vogel

As it turns out, maybe you can live happily ever after in a house made out of gingerbread.

Or at least, so it seemed last week for a group of families brought together by a local architect for an unusual and festive holiday homecoming celebration.

The families have all recently moved into homes designed by SpaceCraft Architecture of Lexington. Last week, they were invited to the company’s Raymond Street office to offer their own candy-inspired design touches to elaborately rendered, scaled replicas of their individual homes, built not of wood and cement, but of gingerbread and icing.

Sally Degan, of Winchester, the firm’s principal who conceived of the annual event, has for years at holiday time constructed scaled models of homes — and sometimes entire historic villages — out of gingerbread. Her time-intensive, detailed renditions — realistic down to every window, arch and miniature swing set — have been compared to the elaborate masterpieces of the great, miniature shipbuilders.

“I just enjoy creating homes — out of anything, really,” said Degan. “And I love to delight people. Plus, I know the renovation process can be arduous and stressful for families. This event is a way of celebrating the families whose homes we design, and of welcoming them home.”

On the eve of the decorating party, SpaceCraft staff busily prepared to welcome their 20 or so guests to their respective miniature homes.

DeGan, a Winchester resident, her 9-year-old son Parker, and co-workers Dustin Nolin and Michael Rosa, had transformed their office into an edible, life-like neighborhood rivaling Willy Wonka’s factory.

Conference tables, desks, and drafting tables were dotted with homes in styles ranging from 18th century farmhouses to Victorians to Contemporaries. Colorful, melted Lifesaver mini windows glowed from battery-powered lights tucked within. As the architectural crew topped off tubs of M&Ms, gumdrops, licorice swirls, and rock candy, the homes’ real, life-size inhabitants began to arrive.

As each new group entered and recognized their abode, they showed a wide-eyed wonderment to match Hansel and Gretel’s.

“Whoa, this is cool,” exclaimed an awestruck 11-year-old Kelly O’Neill of Lexington, as she came across her Castle Road home with parents Chorlotte and Kevin, who own Neillios Gourmet Farm. “I’ve seen gingerbread houses before, but this is amazing! It’s so cool to see a mini version of your home — and made out of gingerbread, too.”

Her younger brother, Kevin, 4, echoed, “cool!” and “that’s my room!” pointing to the appropriate, sugary window on a corner of the house.

Jonathan Kravetz of Wayland reflected on the scene while wife Janny, and children Jacob, 20, Rebecca, 16 and Hannah, 13 intently insulated their home’s roof with rows of colored marshmallow shingles.

“When I walked in I saw this incredibly elaborate gingerbread house so beyond anything I expected,” she said. “I didn’t even recognize it as my home. It’s astounding to me, the loving attention to detail that was put into each house, down to the arches and windows. It’s an incredible gift that Sally and her crew would spend what must have been tens of hours of time and care on these — the same approach they brought to helping us design our house in the first place.”

For DeGan, building homes out of gingerbread is a natural evolution of a lifelong passion for creating homes out of any materials that were handy. Her company’s Web site shows a child’s colorful, crayoned drawing of a home, one of collection DeGan did when she was 4 that her mother kept.

She recalls creating villages out of pine needles and twigs as a child, building tree houses as a teenager, wallpapering and painting her way through high school, and then working for a builder after college. Although she started out on the bottom rung, the one who got to the job-site early to shovel snow off the framing and start up the diesel equipment, she recalls being captivated by the building process, and “loving the smell of the earth and the saw cutting wood.”

When she finally landed in architecture school, she described it as “heaven.”

She traces her passion for designing inviting homes for people to her own experience growing up in a home with two Down’s Syndrome brothers, whose need for special care — sometimes in residential homes — created strains that at times fractioned the family.

“There were times, with all that was going on, that I didn’t like being at home — so I dreamed of making a home where I wanted to be,” she said. “Through design, we can transform the way people live or the way a family interacts. Making a house work for someone can really change their whole well-being.”

If the beaming faces at last week’s festivities are any indication, making someone work on their own house — especially with decorating bags and gumdrops — can change their whole well-being as well.

Tips for building your own gingerbread house

Over the years, Sally DeGan has perfected a process for reconstructing an actual home as a scaled model out of gingerbread.

It starts with having a traditional, one-quarter scale drawing (or sketch) of the house, ideally with elevation views of each side.

Next, cut out the paper walls and roofs from the drawing, which will be used as templates. After rolling out the dough, lay on the templates, and cut out the walls, including the windows, and the roof. To make the edible windows, smash Lifesavers candies (a great job for younger bakers).

Bake the dough walls halfway through, and then place the broken candy bits in the windows for the remainder of the baking time.

Finally, lay the floor plan of the house on a base, such as a piece of cardboard or wood, and build the walls up around the plan. Each home takes about eight hours to construct. For advice or construction-worthy dough and icing recipes, contact Sally at www.SpaceCraftArch.com or 781-674-2100.

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